The information is confirmed this Thursday evening by the town hall of Graulhet: the start of the second stage of the Route d’Occitanie, scheduled for this Friday morning, is canceled due to the heat wave. It was the prefect of Tarn who made such a decision, the department being placed on heat wave red vigilance by Météo-France. It prohibits the passage of the cycle race on the roads of the whole of the Tarn.
In the evening, the organizers thought about a solution so that this stage could be held, at least in the department of Aveyron, which is not placed on red alert.
Shortened stage: 36 kilometers, only in Aveyron
Finally, the start will be given from Belmont-sur-Rance (Aveyron), this Friday at 2:45 p.m., and the stage will be greatly truncated. The finish will still be judged in Roquefort, but after a course of only 36 kilometers. It should take place as planned, unless the weather situation were to worsen in Aveyron, with a prefect who could also decide on a ban.
The runners in any case had wondered in recent hours about this suffocating heat. In particular Arnaud Démare, the leader of the general classification, after his victory at Isle-Jourdain: “It was difficult: at the slightest effort, we were quickly in the red, our hearts raced quickly, we were suffocating. We felt that the peloton counted its efforts: it rolled in slow motion”.
Initially, this second stage was to take place from Graulhet to Roquefort d’Aveyron, over a course of 154 km. In any case, it will be the first time in 46 editions that the Route d’Occitanie will not stop in the Tarn. The event, born in 1977, was formerly the Tour du Tarn.